When I was setting this blog up I seriously considered putting “Diary of a Serial Quitter” as my Tagline. That is exactly what I am.

I recently asked myself what I am good at. The two main answers that came to mind were “writing and quitting.” Now, before you get defensive for my sake I know there are other things that I excel in doing. I am a good mother. I am a good wife. I am an awesome drinker of coffee and reader of books.

It still remains true that I have proven in my adult life that I am pretty awesome at quitting. You could also call me a Career Shopper. I have gone from being a real estate agent to a personal trainer and nutrition coach to a stenographer in training. And what do all these things have in common? I have quit all of them. And with every time I quit something the pressure of being a failure got stronger and stronger and the desire to quit got easier and easier.

You’ve heard it said that the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. And folks, I have a quitting problem. Coming to this realization has not been a fun process but it has been a healing process. I have spent the last six months or so analyzing the WHY to all my quitting tendencies. There are some deeper issues that I will address over time in this blog but for today we’re going to focus on some more practical mistakes I have made over the years. And admitting these mistakes is the first step to quitting this quitter lifestyle.

Mistake #1 – I Did Not Create a Vision

Whenever I embraced a career change I would get pretty excited and I would dive head first into that endeavor. This new career would be the one that I would stick with. I was sure of it. I worked the long hours and learned all I could about my new career.

And then the realities of life would set in. It would get hard. The long hours got shorter and shorter. The excuses crept in for why I couldn’t work at that time and then on that day and eventually why I couldn’t do it at all. It became very easy to just quit.

It took plenty of time and a whole lot of digging to discover that to be successful at anything you have to ask yourself WHY you are doing it. If you don’t know exactly why you are doing it then it will fizzle out and die.

You must have something you are willing to fight for.

In all my previous pursuits, I did not have a WHY or a vision that burned so hot in my soul that I was willing to work into the night and failure was not an option.

I am quitting not having a vision.

I have a vision and I can promise you that it burns pretty dang hot in my soul and I am going to make it happen.

Do you have a burning hot vision?

Mistake #2 – I Did Not Create Long-term and Short-term Goals

You have already learned that I am a huge dreamer. I don’t struggle with having big dreams and making big plans. What I do struggle with is making concrete goals.

I thought I was making good goals by saying “I want to go there” but I would never truly define what “there” was.

I am now creating long term goals that are broken down into short term goals. And then those short term goals are broken down into weekly and daily action steps.

Yes, this is totally new for my personality. In my natural state, I would much rather keep floating around in the dreamy world of the clouds. It is clear that has gotten me nowhere

It is time to turn my dreams into goals and then crush those goals one defined action step at a time.

Are you good at creating goals? What are those goals?

Mistake #3 – I Did Not Track my Victories

I am a person who can get discouraged very easily. My dreamy world brain sees the end goal and lingers in those fuzzy feelings. I go prancing through the flowery fields of seeing my dream accomplished. And then when those fuzzy feelings get crushed by the realities of life I get discouraged very quickly.

I would allow small inconveniences or mistakes to determine my future and I focused on the negativity.

Focusing on your failures, big and small, is like neglecting your garden and allowing it to die.

Focusing on your victories, however, is the same as watering, feeding, and weeding your garden. You build a fence to protect it from the creatures and erect a scarecrow to keep the birds out. You love your garden and do everything required to ensure its success and then enjoy its bounty.

Tracking my victories is as simple as keeping a running log of everything I did right that day. And every time I jot a victory down I am nurturing that goal with love and affection. My current goal garden is still very new but I can confidently say it is the healthiest garden I have ever set out to plant.

Do you keep track of your victories no matter how small?

Mistake #4 – I Did Not Keep a Schedule

Keeping a schedule is not natural for me. Have you figured that out yet? I would rather float around the day and do whatever feels good at that moment. Having a set schedule felt soul crushing. A schedule seemed to fly in the face of creativity.

Sure, I would have a To-do List almost every day and many times I would get at least some of it done but there was zero structure to my day. I would float from work to pleasure without any sort of defined times or routine.

Not having a schedule killed most of my pursuits.

In the long run, nothing of value got completed. Well, to be honest, a whole lot of Netflix and Facebook got done.

Today, my day is planned with space for work and space for pleasure. I have space for dreamy floating and space for “Butt in the Seat Work”.

And my productivity has gone through the roof.

How good are you at keeping a schedule?

Mistake #5 – I Did Not Create Accountability

In all my previous pursuits I did not invite other people in to keep me on track.

I did not invite people into the grand scheme of my vision and my goals and I did not ask them to do what they needed to in order help me get from point A to Point B.

I did not want to invite people in to serve as accountability because I did not want to answer for my lack of work and progress.

The awesome thing is that I can learn from my mistakes and I have formed an army of accountability. These are people who know my heart and my dreams and my goals. They are willing to ask me the hard questions in order to keep me on the right path. They are willing to ruffle feathers and, for that, I am grateful.

Do you have an army of accountability?

I am very good at quitting. Thankfully, my past does not determine my future. Quitting is not the legacy I want to leave for my son. I want my son to remember his Mom as someone who loved her Savior, loved his Dad, loved him, and fought HARD to make her vision her a reality. This is why I am quitting this lifestyle of a quitter. I have identified five mistakes that kept me going in the wrong direction and I am fixing those mistakes for good.